The judge accepted the sentencing submission referencing the forensic psychiatrist's report which points out that Harmen will not do well without supervision upon his release because he was unable to learn from the programs provided to him while behind bars.

Man admits to abducting and attacking woman he was supposed to marry

Posted Sep 16, 2014 on www.thestarphoenix.com

Clinton McLaughlin submitted a guilty plea to charges of aggravated assault and kidnapping of Mariana Cracogna, the woman he was formerly engaged to.

A maximum of 14-year sentence looms for McLaughlin while Saskatoon defence lawyer Mike Nolin is keeping mum on the number of years that he will be seeking for his client.

His sentencing will be on November 21.

This is not the first time that McLaughlin has been charged with such a crime.

In January, he was also charged with illegally detaining another woman and assaulting her with a coat hanger.

Saskatoon lawyers hope court resolution is start of healing in the community

Posted Jul 25, 2014 on www.thestarphoenix.com

Saskatoon lawyers Kevin Hill and Ron Piche, who are representing teenagers accused of hazing, expressed hopes that the court resolution of the case will start the healing after rifts were created in the community by the incident.

The six accused teens have submitted a guilty plea for their involvement in subjecting five other teenagers to hazing.

The hazing has become a ritual in the community, which lies southeast of Saskatoon, and it has been participated by some of the older generation in the past.

However, there were complaints that the hazing has gone too far and thus charges were filed, which created a gap in the community.

Because of their ages, the accused and the victims cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The six teens were each given a conditional discharge. If they can fulfill the conditions laid down for their probation of nine months, they will not have the incident on their records.

Teenager pleads guilty to child pornography

Posted Jul 22, 2014 on www.cbc.ca

Instead of attending his preliminary hearing, a young man aged 18 years old pleaded guilty to making child pornography using the Kik Messenger, a cellular phone application.

The application allows the exchanging of text messages and pictures on a cellular phone.

The teen used the application to take advantage of four minor girls whom he used in making the pornographic materials.

He also used their photos to blackmail them into letting him touch them sexually.

Lawyers of beating death suspect want him to stay in Calgary

The 19-year-old Rider has been accused of beating to death Christa Cachene last October and he is now facing second-degree murder charges.

Williamson told Judge Jim Ogle of the provincial court that having Rider in Edmonton is making it very hard to communicate with him especially for Calgary defence lawyer Balfour Der, who is acting as the lead counsel for his defence.

The lawyer added that they would have to meet with Rider several times which is why they need him to be in Calgary.

Judge Ogle said he will make the order, although he is hesitant about doing so and he wants to know first the impact of such move from remand officers.

Nepal citizens who are working in Canada on a temporary permit should be given a reprieve, according to Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma.

Sharma said that the Canadian government should do something for the foreign workers from Nepal which recently suffered from a very strong earthquake.

The lawyer has proposed to have the foreign workers from Nepal be given permanent residency as some of them already had their permits expiring.

He said that a little less than 400 Nepalese are working in Canada under the temporary foreign worker program.

Sharma added that with the catastrophe, it will not be appropriate to be sending them back to Nepal.

Pastor nets jail for possessing child pornography

Posted Jun 18, 2015 on www.edmontonsun.com

Richard John Docekal, who used to be a pastor in Edmonton, will be spending six months in jail after he submitted a guilty plea to possession of child pornography.

The 59-year-old Docekal admitted to having a large collection of pornographic materials of drawings in cartoons depicting children having sexual relations with their parents.

Ed O'Neill, a lawyer in Edmonton defending for the disgraced pastor, said that his client has regretted his misdeed which resulted to him no longer serving as a pastor.

Docekal's marriage also became a casualty of his unsavory hobby and he was also subjected to public humiliation after his arrest landed on the front pages of the news, said the lawyer.

The pastor's penchant for the pornographic materials came to light after the woman with whom he had an affair blew the whistle on him.

Woman sentenced to prison for injecting silicone into other women's butts

Posted Mar 26, 2015 on www.vicnews.com

Marilyn Reid received an eight-year prison sentence for using silicone oil in performing butt lifts on her women clients without their knowledge.

Earlier in January, Reid had submitted a guilty plea to eight counts of aggravated assault.

According to the sentencing judge, Reid put the lives of her clients in danger without thought to their safety because she was only thinking of the profit that she would be getting.

Reid deceived her clients by promising them that she would be injecting PMMA, a substance that could only be acquired through the black market anyway because it is not approved for cosmetic surgery by Health Canada.

Four of Reid's five victims suffered serious injuries. Medical practitioners also had a hard time in treating them because they had no idea what was injected into their butts.

The Crown had asked for between 10 to 12-year sentence while Toronto lawyer Calvin Barry countered with 30 months.

Reid, however, will only be serving a little more than five years because the judge credited the time that she had spent in custody.

Man convicted in 17 of 22 charges related to a shootout

Posted Mar 06, 2015 on www.castanet.net

Michael Edward Ellis has been convicted of several charges for his part in a police chase and shootout incident in July of 2012.

Ellis has submitted a not guilty plea to 22 charges in relation to the incident but he was found guilty in 17 of those charges.

During the incident, Ellis was identified as one of the three people whom police were chasing for an hour.

Among the charges Ellis was found guilty of were firearm charges. He was, however, acquitted of the charges related to murder.

In Ellis' defence, Victoria BC criminal lawyer John Gustafson told the court that his client's involvement in that incident was only forced. Even one of his companions testified as much.